“Bridges have a way of capturing the spirit and exciting people even more than buildings do.” That’s according to Alex Ward, architect, Chairman of Friends of LA River (FOLAR), and guest on this week’s  DnA. That might be how first-time users feel as they set car or foot on this newly opened Aizhai bridge in southern China’s Hunan Province, the highest and longest valley suspension bridge in the world (shown in this photo in The Independent newspaper).
It may not span 1,176 meters at 335m above the ground like this one, but the …

Heidi Duckler mixes the kinetic and the static, having choreographed contemporary dance performances, since 1987, in Angeleno urban spaces, ranging from Laundromats to private Modern houses. Her most recent venue is the 51st floor of the the Paul Hastings Tower in former ARCO Plaza complex, now City National Plaza*, which she has recast as a backdrop for Cleopatra, CEO. This is a retelling, partly inspired by Stacy Schiff’s new book, of the story of Cleopatra, her lovers Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and the ancient battle of Actium, and is on show …

The GOOD4NOTHING CONNOISSEUR went to see Metropolis II when the art-piece was switched off, the cars and trains were still and the room was devoid of the constant whirr of racing vehicles. The experience is different; one focuses on the visual, not the aural. He describes his impressions here:
Directly off the room that’s home to Richard Serra’s giant piece, “Band,”– a woozy ribbon of slithering tall towering, rust-colored weatherproof steel that lures and caresses you — past a large bank of TV sets that flick and flash alternating roiling …

Scene Around Town, by Bennett Stein (aka The Good4NothingConnoisseur):
I recently accompanied DnA on an outing to Hollywoodland and the epicenter of production companies and sound stages, to what I was promised would be a holiday party. There we found ourselves at the HQ of JustOneEye.com, the online boutique for the self-described “world’s finest in design, fashion, and art” at a top-secret launch party for Pasadena’s finest, most illustrious fashion duo, Rodarte, and their new book of the same name. Realized in collaboration with art photographers Catherine Opie and Alec Soth, Rodarte offers up a visual meditation …

If you grew up, as I did, in the age of glam rock followed by punk, you tend to think that the point of being a rock star is to strut your stuff and have fun with clothes, the zanier and less like regular life the better. So, from a purely style perspective I’ve been perplexed by many of today’s indie rock bands, that seem to make a point of making no statement whatever with clothes, nor any kind of stagey sexual persona.
This was on my mind during KCRW’s …

Undeterred by winds Wednesday night that brought down nature and structure, a big crowd gathered at Jonathan Adler’s Melrose store to see Jackie Terrell’s new paintings, and hang out with one of the design world’s wittiest couples, Adler and Simon Doonan. I went, bringing hubby Bennett Stein (usual question when I ask if he wants to accompany me to a design event: “Will there be hors d’oeuvres?”) and our seven-year old daughter. Writing in his alter ego of Good4Nothing Connoisseur, he had this to report:
Got to the party site …

What could be more provocative than making a group of rich and famous people dressed for the red carpet cover up their finery with dumpy medical coats? That was the start of a MOCA fundraising party art directed by New York performance artist Marina Abramovic. To some it was misogynistic, to others it felt like 70s Manhattan repackaged (reinforced by a catwalk performance by Debbie Harry). To this writer, Bennett Stein, (aka,  the Good4NothingConnoisseur), it delivered a lesson on what makes great visual theater: 
Saturday night’s swank gala/alien abduction can be summed up in one word: “ENTRANCE.” No payoff …

 By Beth Topping
Simply put, Charles and Ray Eames formed one of the most celebrated American design teams of the 20th century.  Their collaborations in furniture, film, photography and textiles drew on their mutual inspirations and a simple philosophy about form and function.  Once, when asked what was more important, beauty or function, Charles Eames famously said, “I should make a choice between keeping my head or my heart?” 
Finding a way to bring beauty to utility was a specialty of the Eameses and something they sought out in their day-to-day …

“The preoccupation with self-expression is no more appropriate to the world of art than it is to surgery—That does not mean I would reduce self-expression to zero. I am sure that the really great surgeons operate on the edge of intuition. But the rigorous constraints in surgery – these are important in any art.” Charles Eames
This is just one of the pithy observations delivered by designer Charles Eames, and captured in the show that opened this week at A+D Museum and manages — after two months of planning and a …

This is my third reminder about Little Tokyo Design Week, but I cannot emphasize enough how interesting this event promises to be, with a galaxy of interesting design-architecture people, steel container pods filled with exhibits (one of them, Ultra Expo, shown right, curated by Sylvia Lavin), a co-mingling of Japanese and local talent and, on Saturday night, a fast-paced Pecha Kucha in which 48 designers and commentators will offer up two-minute presentations of six slides each on the topic of the Future City (I’ll be one of the presentors), not to …